OTTAWA — Federal Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson says the question of whether there is a business case for a new bitumen pipeline in Canada will be up to the private sector to decide.

He also suggests the question of whether the country can, in fact, build a new oil pipeline to be an “overfocusing” on a “hypothetical.”

“I think Canada can build many things,” Hodgson told National Post in a wide-ranging interview on Monday.

“The over-focusing on what right now is hypothetical… What I want to do is focus on when real proponents bring real things forward. We will help them get them done.”

The minister’s comments come as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith seeks to have Prime Minister Mark Carney include her yet-to-be-submitted proposal to build a million-barrel-a-day bitumen pipeline fr

See Full Page